Marketing nightmare - last minute request for collateral

How’s this for a familiar story: A sales person marches into the marketing or design department, requesting new collateral by the end of the day for a meeting tomorrow. ‘Just use last year’s report and stick the new logo on it’, they say. Or perhaps they want something brand new, with stats that marketing doesn’t have the time to find. The following day arrives and the sales person enters the meeting, armed with a briefcase full of brochures, flyers, whitepapers, infographics, etc. The logos don’t match and nor do the figures, but at least they have something to point at, right…?

It’s a marketing nightmare, and it’s not doing sales any favors either. It’s time to do away with bad habits and ring in the new era – one where sales teams’ needs are met and marketing departments are in complete control of content. Here’s why having a consistent brand identity is so important.

Branding is more than just a logo

Perhaps part of the problem is a misconception over what branding actually is. Let’s take Nike as an example. Nike’s brand is not the Nike swish, it’s a lifestyle that is embodied by their slogan ‘Just Do It’ and reiterated by their marketing and their products.

Your brand is not your logo – it’s the entire customer experience, from your imagery to your literature, to your representatives. The brand is the whole package and it has an incredible ability to engage consumers. Brand loyalty is a key component of consumerism, guiding our purchasing decisions. Scott Goodson, founder of StrawberryFrog, put it most eloquently when he said: ‘Brands are psychology and science brought together as a promise mark as opposed to a trademark.’

Our attachment to brands is deep and multifaceted. Even for a small B2B company, branding is powerful and should never be neglected or considered only as an afterthought.

Perception is key

Presenting contradictory content, displaying an array of logos or even something as simple as inconsistent page layouts gives the impression that your company is disorganized and lacks direction. Is that how you want people to perceive you? Throwing together some collateral because ‘it’s just one meeting’ and ‘it doesn’t matter’ suggests a lack of due care and attention that won’t inspire confidence among your customers. This article outlines 10 negative perceptions created by an out of date website – the same applies to outdated and mismatched marketing materials.

Brand identity differentiates you from your competitors

Building a strong brand identity and reflecting this in your marketing collateral gives your business a sense of identity, authority and vision. It says clearly and confidently: ‘this is who we are; this is what we do’. It sets you apart from your competitors, and this is important not just for your customers, but also for everyone who works for your company, for whom brand loyalty is equally important.

Realize your brand strategy

Using a Sales Enablement platform with a mobile app to store, access and present your marketing collateral makes it much easier to create consistent branding and deny access to old or off-brand material. There’s no question of shipping printed collateral to sales people, or sending someone off with a briefcase full of tatty documents cobbled together from the storeroom. No old content can threaten to derail your brand strategy; instead your collateral will look modern, sleek and professional. Marketing maintains total control over what content is being used, and sales gets a practical tool that enables them to easily access all the collateral they need, anywhere, any time. It’s win-win.